The Black Queen
by Macabreminion
Summary: (post S6E9) sequel to "Kings and Pawns" (READ IT FIRST, OTHERWISE YOU'LL BE LOST!). 3XK is in custody, but for how long? Castle and Beckett get on the trail of a familiar foe. Who is the most dangerous of them all? read and find out. will be updated with regularity. Reviews are appreciated! All non OC's belong to their respective creators. READ IN CASE OF SEVERE CASTLE WITHDRAWLS!
1. Chapter 1

The walk up the white marble stairs to the court house for Jerry Tysons arraignment was more crowded than McHale had ever experienced. Gate's press conference the day prior had ignited a media fire. Matt bounced like a ping pong ball from reporter to reporter; McHale had endured the media before but not to this extent. Waiting just inside the guarded doors was Castle, Kate, and Alexis. McHale found Kate easiest to see, easiest to greet. He was still unsure when it came to his family. The same was true for Castle, what was appropriate escaped him. A handshake? Hug? Pat on the back? While raising children was not foreign to him, nothing seemed right. McHale took the initiative, greeting Kate first.

"G'morning detective Beckett." After which Matt extended his right hand to his father, who clasp his hand in return. Even if the gesture wasn't quite right, the smiles on the faces of Matt, Rick and Alexis told the story of the moment.

"Morning Matt, so I know this is kind of soon, but would you join us for brunch?" Castle asked with certain earnestness. McHale stumbled for his answer, slightly puzzled by the proposition.

"Sure, but why would that be too soon? It's just food."

"Ah yes, but its food with my mother." McHale was even more puzzled, raising only one brow. Kate jumped in, seeing his obvious distress.

"Relax you guys, it's just Martha. I'm sure you'll love her, and she no doubt loves you. Rick couldn't shut up about you last night." McHale closed his eyes and shook his head, upon reopening them he looked to Alexis for the truth.

"Gram's fun. A little … quirky… but fun." McHale paused a moment longer, then inquired of Kate,

"Wait … why do you know what he was talking about with his mom? How close is your partnership?"

Kate said nothing; she simply raised her hand to show McHale the massive rock that weighed it down. Dropping his briefcase, Matt grabbed her hand with both of his, taking a close look at the diamond; then a close look at Rick, then back to the diamond. McHale released Kate's hand. Picking his briefcase up with his right, McHale raised his left hand as high above his head as he could. Castle promptly gave him a solid high-five. McHale pursed his lips, quietly whispering out of the half of his mouth closest to Castle's ears.

"Way to go old man." Castle narrowed his brow in a comical sort of sternness, before releasing to a full smile.

"Hey, watch it with the old man stuff, but thank you." McHale stretched his left arm out, revealing his watch; taking in the time he made a suggestion.

"Well, if I don't get moving I'm going to be late. You should find some seats; it looks like it's going to be a packed house this morning. " The group walked together into the courtroom, Castle, Kate and Alexis took seats as close to the front as they could muster; three rows back, and on the aisle. McHale walked through the gate separating the gallery from the floor. Matt removed his coat and started to sort through some paperwork from his briefcase until the bailiff called the courtroom to order. The room rose and fell in ceremony; Judge Markowitz took his seat at the bench and read the indictment. Having finished, he asked the question that would make or break McHale's day.

"And how does the defendant plea?" The judge looked up from the long list of criminal violations; removing his glasses, he stared Tyson in the eye. Suddenly a phone began to ring; in the third row, on the aisle. It was Beckett's phone. A visibly irritated Markowitz shouted into the gallery.

"Whose phone is that?!" Beckett flashed a quick smile to Castle and Alexis. Growing more flush and embarrassed, Kate silenced her ringer, and raised her hand in silent apology. Kate then proceeded to exit the courtroom. In the hallway she peered at her phone, the missed call was from an unfamiliar number, but the caller was kind enough to leave a voicemail, which Beckett promptly retrieved.

"We'll meet again,  
>Don't know where, don't know when,<br>But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day.

Keep smiling through,  
>Just like you always do,<br>Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds, far away.

So will you please say hello,  
>To the folks that I know,<br>Tell them I won't be long…"


	2. Chapter 2

Kate dropped her hand from her ear to her side, letting her phone fall to the floor. Panic washed over her like a bucket of water. Vera Lynn's voice had haunted her since she first heard the recording on the pen left behind by Kelly Nieman. Beckett willed herself to quell the feel of terror brewing inside her; determined to catch Nieman Beckett pulled her gun. Running to the nearest uniformed officer, she flashed her badge and began to bark orders.

"Lock it down, now! Nobody gets in or out. We have a highly dangerous potential security threat." The uniformed officer pinched the radio attached to his jacket and started spitting words into it. Soon enough the roar of the crowd outside became silenced by the locked doors of the courthouse. By the time Beckett put her hand on the gigantic handle to the courtroom, she was already too late. A loud crack and crash came from inside, followed by the sounds of shattering glass and screams. Beckett ripped the door open. Castle was huddled on his knees, shielding Alexis with his body. Kate's eyes were drawn to the windows of the grand courtroom, where she observed two jagged softball size holes. A loud hissing was coming from the floor in front of Markowitz's bench. Two canisters lay, blasting out white smoke. As Beckett advanced toward the gate, Tyson slipped his shackles and disarmed the bailiff. Tyson hadn't noticed her yet, but the bailiff provided a human shield as the smoke swirled higher and higher. 3XK wasted no time putting a bullet square in the bailiff's chest with his own gun. McHale sprang in to action, lunging at Tyson, pushing his hands toward the ceiling; BANG, another shot rang out. Now Beckett couldn't see Tyson or McHale. CRACK! Another shot. Kate ran and knelt by her fiancé, holding the muzzle of her weapon firmly in Tyson's direction; suddenly, the magazine to a nine millimeter pistol came sliding under the gate. CRACK! A final shot. A few moments of quieting screams passed as uniformed officers flooded in and civilians flooded out. The holes in the windows seemed to suck the smoke out of the room. Beckett could now see a figure emerging from the diffuse white background, she aimed but remained restrained; and for good cause. It was McHale. He was covering his mouth with his left hand and waving at Beckett with his right, waving her out into the hall. Kate holstered her gun, and grabbed Castle by the waist, pulling him and Alexis out into the hall. Alexis wrapped her arms around Castle, and he held her tight. Pulling back, he brushed the hair from her face, her teary swollen eyes looking back at him.

"You ok Lexis?" she nodded to let him know she was," My God, Kate what the fuck was that?" out of breath, Beckett responded, huffing and puffing.

"Nieman. The phone call I got was that damn song." Kate brushed he hand through her hair in frustration. Matt came stumbling out a few seconds later. He took a few feeble steps to the other side of the hall before leaning up against the wall, and slowly sliding down to a seated position. The questions came pouring out of Castle and Beckett faster than they had when McHale was surrounded by reporters less than an hour ago. McHale answered as fast as he could.

"What happened? Where's Tyson?" Kate Barked at the disoriented ADA.

"Dead."

"Dead?! How?" McHale shook his head from side to side.

"No idea, that's your department" Alexis went to his side, kneeling next to him,

"Are you ok?" McHale shook his head; and coughed into his hand again.

"I can't … I can't breathe" McHale continued to cough. Castle knelt, placing a hand on his son's shoulder.

"That's completely normal, there was a lot of smoke in there, just take some deep breaths." McHale nodded and drew a few labored breaths that seemed to whistle. He turned and looked at Alexis. Without so much as a word, he raised his left hand and brushed away a tear on his sister's cheek with his thumb; and then his hand fell limp. Alexis abruptly looked to Castle and Kate, both stared back in horror. Matt had left a streak of blood on her face. Soon all three noticed the growing puddle of hot red blood that was beginning to soak into Alexis' jeans.


	3. Chapter 3

Kate looked Rick dead in the eyes. She had seen the look of despair in them before; moments before he said "I love you" for the first time, moments before she herself had almost lost her life. Beckett could only imagine the hell castle had just been thrust into, and unwilling to let her fiancé endure it she sprang to action, shouting orders.

"Alexis move, Castle, hold his head. Let's lay him down." Beckett grabbed McHale's heels and pulled him away from the wall until he was supine, then took Alexis' place by his side. Kate un-tucked Matt's shirt and stuck her hand underneath his body and began groping about.

"Ok, Alexis, go find a uniform and tell them we need a bus if they haven't called one already." The distraught red-head rose, but before she could start running, Kate had a final request.

"Leave your purse." Alexis didn't question her; she dropped her canvas bag and ran down the hall.

"Ok Castle, check for a pulse." Rick's giant fingers pressed on his son's neck.

"It's fast, and weak. He's dying Kate!" Beckett ripped at Alexis' bag, opening the clasp and spilling the contents onto the floor.

"Kate, what are you looking for?" A focused Beckett responded slowly, like she did when just before finding a clue.

"The one thing every girl has in every purse … a tampon." Kate rummaged through the pile of things until she found one; once she did she tore open the flowery packaging.

"Roll him on his side toward you." Castle placed his hands on McHale's shoulder and belt opposite him and pulled. Kate wasted no time shoving the tampon into the exit wound on Matt's back, deploying it to plug the hole. "Now we need to roll him my way, I think he's got a collapsed lung and we can't risk the other one filling with blood." Once McHale had been positioned, Kate plugged the entry wound in his chest with her finger. Alexis came running back; paramedics in toe. They immediately used their solid plastic stretcher, lifting him onto the gurney; where one of the medics took Beckett's place. Holding McHale's life-force in his body, they sprinted to the ambulance. Alexis ran to her father's embrace, while Kate swept her hair out of her face with the back of her hand; her palms and fingers saturated with blood.

"You guys should go to the hospital." Kate murmured.

"You're not coming with?" Alexis shot back, almost delirious

"This is a crime scene; I still have a job to do. Espo and Ryan will probably be here any minute, I'll be right behind you." Kate snuck a quick peck on Castle's cheek; a moment of intimacy and quiet amongst the chaos. Rick turned down the hall with Alexis under his arm, pacing into the distance. Kate took to the restroom. She plunged her hands underneath the faucet's cool running water. She watched the blood from her hands dilute and swirl down the drain; it was the first time she had any insight as to how Castle must have felt when she was shot. The weight of the fact this victim could yet-be her step son soaked in, making the blood even harder to scrub off. Kate dried her hands and cheeks, even a few tears had permeated her strong exterior. Kate collected herself, and then went back into the courtroom. She stood for a few moments in triumphant silence until a familiar voice beckoned her attention.

"Hey Beckett!" It was detective Ryan. "Where's he at?" Beckett responded with a half-smile and pointed to Tyson's lifeless body that lay in the center of the room.

"No not him, McHale." Esposito and two paramedics came crashing into the courtroom. Kate spun around, her head spinning twice as fast.

"The paramedics just took him …" to which one of the emergency responders asked,

"What paramedics ma'am? We were the first unit to get the call."


	4. Chapter 4

As the paramedics zipped Tyson's lifeless corpse into a black body bag, Kate's phone rang. Peering down at the screen she saw her fiancé's face. Kate struggled in her mind. How could she tell Rick that the son he just met, was not only bleeding to death, but to her knowledge had been kidnapped? She let her phone ring through to voicemail. She looked up from her phone's screen to see the sadness on Ryan and Esposito's faces. "Castle?" Inquired Esposito.

"Yeah … Ok guys, we have to keep this under wraps as long as possible…" Ryan objected.

"Kate, what the hell? Castle needs to know. That's his son." Kate was despondent to say the least.

"Look, we don't know what we're dealing with. We have no clue what the hell happened here. We have NO answers for him or Alexis. So we do our jobs. We gather the evidence and see where it leads us. That's the fastest way to get answers, and get McHale back; hopefully alive, I know we barely know him, but now that we know what he's done; who he is, he's part of our family . My family …" Her partners could see the weight of the world pressing down on her. Ryan chimed in, attempting to be productive.

"Alright, so what do we know? What do you remember?" Kate recounted the events of the morning, being as detailed as possible which only raised more questions. Why the smoke? How did Tyson slip his restraints?

"Ok, let's get CSU to sweep the scene, and we need the autopsy results from Lanie as soon as possible." Somberly, the team departed the courthouse and returned to the 12th. All three detectives sat at their desks, sifting through the crime scene photos and eye witness accounts, trying to make the ends meet; trying to come up with a story that made sense. A feeling of dread washed over them when the elevator chimed. The doors sprang open with a groan. Castle paced out with slumped shoulders and damp eyes. He wasted no time marching straight to Beckett's desk. He landed a fist on the desk, causing everything to rattle and Kate's pen holder to topple over, spilling everywhere.

"When the hell were you going to tell me Kate?!" Kate had only seen Rick like this once before, when Alexis had been kidnapped. "I went to every single emergency room in the city, and Matt hasn't been admitted anywhere, which leaves only one logical conclusion, which is, HE WAS KIDNAPPED!" Kate's head and eyes swung low facing the dark brown laminate that covered her cheap desk; as if an acceptable answer might magically appear. Running her hand through her hair, she reluctantly responded.

"Castle … we don't know that he's been kidnapped. In fact we don't know much of anything right now, and I didn't want to disappoint you."

"Well, you did." Castle snapped back. Kate tried to maneuver the conversation in a different direction.

"Where's Alexis?" Castle anger melted into helplessness. Plopping down into his chair and rubbing his forehead he answered.

"At home, with Martha. Why would anyone want to kidnap my son? None of this makes sense to me; and that's rare. Please Kate … just find him." The ring of Beckett's desk phone saved her from further discussion.

"That was Lanie, she's got something for us. Castle, you coming?" Castle shook his head with negativity, using all of his arms strength he pushed himself out of the chair beside Beckett's desk.

" I'm just going to … get a cup of coffee. Let me know when you have something." Both went their separate ways, while Ryan and Esposito exchanged concerned looks; they hate it when mom and dad are fighting, but that emotion spurned them to work just that much harder, the feeling that they were fighting for family began to sink in. Down in the morgue, Lanie fluttered about with an uninformed smile on her face.

"Hey girl, I've never been happier to report that: this man is dead. One nine millimeter round through the chest, and lodged in his spine is our cause of death. Looks like our boy McHale did what we all wanted to. Kate slumped into one of the high chairs next to the lab's desk, and with a blank stare spoke.

"Is that all Lanie?" The medical examiners face went from rosy happiness, to downturned eyes and sadness.

"Kate, no that's not all, but what's going on?" Kate shook her head in confusion, dismissing her close friend's question.

"What else is there?" She barked. Obviously not herself, Lanie skipped the niceties and continued with the interesting part of her report.

"A second gunshot wound. A twenty-two caliber bullet was stuck in his left shoulder blade. I extracted the bullet, which was pretty mangled, but it was covered in something viscous; almost liquidly. The other odd part about it is he didn't bleed much from this wound; almost like he was shot simultaneously with both weapons. I'm sending the slug to the FBI lab to see if they can tell us what's on it." Beckett rose from her chair and turned to the door for a quick exit. "One more thing hunny, the wound from the nine-mil shows stippling, close range; the twenty-two entry wound shows none." Kate paused with her hand on the door and furrowed her brow.

"So he was shot from a distance?" Kate asked. Lanie answered with experienced confidence.

"That would be my guess." The two friends exchanged small, flat lipped smiles, finally a clue.


	5. Chapter 5

Kate returned to her desk, to find Rick starring at the minimal collection of evidence displayed on the team's board. Both Ryan and Esposito sat silently; almost afraid to utter a syllable. Kate broke the ice with the news. "We've got something new; A second shooter." Kevin and Javi displayed puzzled expressions.

"What do you mean a second shooter? All I saw was what looked like a nine-mil to the chest." Squawked Esposito" Kate rushed to inform the group.

"Lanie pulled a twenty-two caliber slug from his left shoulder in his back. We wouldn't have noticed unless we would have rolled him over, which is of course against procedure. We need to head back to the crime scene, and tell CSU to meet us there. Castle … any insight as to what might be going on here?" Castle didn't move. Eyes still fixed on the board that lacked more information than it ever had before. "Rick, we're going to find him." Castle cut his fiancé off.

"Kate, this is the … 3XK family that we're dealing with. You and I both know, chances are he's already dead." Kate could see the anger and frustration growing inside him, as well as a distance between them. Kate knew not to make promises to him that she couldn't keep, but wanted so badly to be his hero. This was one case she had to solve, with or without him; and on top of that, Rick was right. The clock was ticking.

"And everyone in this room knows that without you our chances of finding him; getting justice, are slim. We need you Castle. Matt needs you." Kate had stepped in front of her fiancé and placed a hand on his chest. She had appealed to both the father, and detective inside Castle, the only things Rick couldn't turn down; besides her. Kate's speech and affection snapped Castle back to reality.

"Let's go." He said with determination. The team returned to the crime scene and each began to play a role, being directed by Beckett, as she had the clearest memory of what happened. The team had run through the scenario a number of times, until Kate paused and began to stroke her chin. Esposito, who had the unfortunate task of playing the part of 3XK made an inquiry.

"What is it Beckett?" Kate removed her hand from her chin and pointed to the windows behind him.

"What do you see?" Esposito turned, made his observations and responded.

"Two broken windows …" Kate interrupted.

"But no bullet hole. McHale's kill shot left stippling, but the twenty-two caliber wound didn't show any, or any gun shot residue. Ryan, how far is Espo standing from the jury box?" Detective Ryan paced the distance there and back again.

" Uhh about twelve … fifteen feet." Kevin's eyes lit up. "Just far enough away to not leave any GSR." Kate posed a question to both of her partners.

"Who was sitting in the jury box?" The color drained from both of their faces, they exchanged glances; trying to silently decide who should tell her. Javi looked to the floor and rubbed the back of his head, leaving Ryan to answer.

"Well, normally the jury box would have been empty, but due to the popularity of our victim … that really doesn't sound right; but anyway, due to the popularity of our victim the courtroom was a little crowded, and the jury box was opened to police officers and state officials." Kate's jaw dropped for a moment. Esposito tried to bring some levity to the situation despite his own feelings.

"Kate, that doesn't mean it was one of them." Kate shot back a grim glance

"Espo, we've gone over this time and time again, as soon as the action starts, Tyson has his back to the windows and jury box. We need to re interview, and search, everyone that was sitting in that box. Maybe somebody was holding a grudge and used the escape attempt as a convent cover for their crime." Javi bowed his head to Beckett.

"As you wish. Come on bro." Esposito motioned for Ryan to join him. They wouldn't need to go far, as the building was locked down and the suspects were still inside.


End file.
